54 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



tional legislation and advancing prices for sugar increase its value, the price of beets 

 for 1897 will be not over $4 per ton. That was the price for "96, the extra dollar being 

 conditional upon the state paying the bounty. 



THE RECORD OF THE BEET SUGAK INDUSTRY IX NEBRASKA. 



The dry season of 1894 produced beets of a low water content that yielded an aver- 

 age of 216 Ibs of refined sugar to the ton, compared to 176 Ibs the year before. In 

 1895, on the other hand, late rains and a warm fall started a second growth which in- 

 creased the size and weight at expense of sugar, which averaged only 150 pounds of 

 refined to the ton. The average for the last campaign will be fully 200 Ibs of refined 

 sugar to the ton and will thus compare with previous years since the factory began 

 operations : 



Year 



1890, 



1891, 



1892, 



1893, 



1894*, 



1895, 



1896,t 



G I Norfolk 



4,414 



10,868 8,179 

 10,725 

 22,625 

 25,633 

 31,194 



13,055 



11,150 



drouth 



24,343 



75,000 



General drouth made tonnage so small in 1894 that tlie beets belonging to the Grand Island factory 

 district were worked up at the Norfolk factory, t Partly estimated. 



The average yield last year was 10 to 12 tons per acre, but some experienced grow- 

 ers on richly manured bottom land had from 18 to 25 tons per acre, and even more. 

 Growers of beets for these factories are more or less scattered over the state, and 

 much of the crop has to be hauled by rail. The freight is 30c per ton for distances of 

 25 miles or less, 50c for 25 to 45 miles, and 80c for 45 to 100 miles, the rate being a lit- 

 tle higher on another railroad, which exacts an additional charge of $2 per car for 

 switching. The cars are loaded to their visible capacity. The factories paid about 

 $300,000 for beets in '96, or $;35 to $75 per acre and even more in a few instances. 

 Renters pay $8 to $10 per acre per year for choice beet kind. 



But for the splendid and persistent work of the Nebraska experiment station (es. 

 pecially H. H. Nicholson), which conducted tests in all parts of the state and made 

 thousands of analyses, and even conducted a sugar school, the present assured posi- 

 tion of the business in Nebraska could not have been reached. The station has made 

 10,000 analyses, the average of all being over 14 per cent of sugar in Nebraska beets. 

 It is now certain that only moisture and proper culture are needed to enable the 

 beet to be grown to perfection in almost any part of the state. There is a great 

 demand for beet-sugar factories in almost every county in Nebraska. 



UTAH. 



Keen interest is felt in the beet-sugar industry all over this state, o*ving t<~> the 

 established success of the (at present) only sugar factory in the whole inter-mountain 

 region of the United States, at Lehi, a few miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. 

 Beets for sugar manufacturing can be ruined by a superabundance of moisture just at 

 the ripening period. As sugar beets can be grown here only by irrigation, the indus- 

 try at the outset was surrounded by new and peculiar conditions. The knowledge 

 and science of beet growing (it is a science) were obtained from experts from Cali- 



